Inoue sighed. It was raining. Oh, she just detested rainy days! She opened her grey eyes, glancing around the room. The sky was a very plain cloudy thing with the exception of the dark clouds storming as hard as they could nearby. She looked slyly over at the alarm clock, wondering if she'd have a chance this morning. She lifted her hand slowly, ever so slowly, from her stomach where it had been captured. She struggled to swallow a giggle, the breathing above her head was calm and steady. All signs were clear.

"Don't even think about it."

"Aw... you were awake?" Orihime complained, sighing like a child who had almost taken a forbidden candy before dinner. Though now that she thought about it, Ishida had done that to her last week. It was a simple piece of toffee, that's all! And before it reached her mouth, it was back in its wrapper and under the protective custody of a certain Quincy until she ate the dinner he so precarilously made. Honestly, the man was all tradition! She tried to resist the urge to pout, as she knew what happened when she pouted. But then again, he couldn't see her face, now could he? Well, then again, Orihime couldn't even use that anymore. Living here had made him so intuitive about her expressions that he didn't even need to hear her tone of voice. It scared her sometimes, how well he had pieced together their world and kept everyone else out of it.

"Orihime-chan, it's time to get up," He reminded her, running a hand through her hair before turning off the alarm clock over her. Now that he was up on his right elbow, he stared ominously at a pile of laundry in her corner of the room. He wasn't sure how she managed to makes messes everywhere, but her adeptness at it baffled him. He was as adept at cleaning it, however, and wondered what horrors would have awaited any other man who wanted to marry his hime. It took precision, an attention to detail and a keen understanding of exactly which rooms she used to keep up with it.

"But it's raining..." She said, still not getting up. She decided that it was necessary to take out the big guns, as Tatsuki would say. She pouted, ever so slightly before letting it pass through her lips like a sultry whisper. "Uryuu...". Ishida groaned, half in irritation and half in the pleasure he never stopped feeling. She wasn't allowed to call him that at school or when they were out, especially not like that, because she had come to know that it involved getting dragged home under the pretenses of being sick to anyone who asked. Though Ichigo and Rukia only stared at them, the same thought running through their minds: 'Again?'

Rukia and Ichigo were doing well, Orihime was happy to say. Though the two stared at Ishida and her a lot and asked how they got anything done. It became a boon to Ishida, she noted, that they had somehow surpassed Rukia and Ichigo. It didn't need to be said, it was just so blatantly obvious by the looks on their faces every time Orihime felt rather tender and would call him Uryuu by accident.

"You're going to be sorry, 'hime," Ishida said in an almost frightening voice. It sent shivers throughout her, but not the bad ones. That was the voice that tipped her off. Which, by its sound, made anyone get out of their way during those interesting moments at school. She felt light kisses brushing up her shoulder, soundless and they might have gone unfelt had her skin not been so sensitive at the sound of his voice.Her breath hitched as he reached her neck.

"W-why?" She asked, closing her newly opened eyes. She let out a small puff of air.

"You're having toast for breakfast."

And so, much later, Ishida and Orihime were found at the breakfast table eating toast and some left overs from dinner. While Ishida could go on just two pieces of toast until lunch, Orihime could not. Ishida was careful to make larger dinners for that very purpose. Of course, sometimes he would have to go out and come back to find she'd eaten all of the the left-overs in the fridge while watching some ridiculous program.

That was something else that had appeared with Orihime in his quiet apartment. A television. He had no affection for it, and didn't even possess a radio until she came. Then she brought all her noisy appliances and machines with her, leaving him to make sure they were maintained. Looking back on what he liked to call his "Pre-Orihime Apartment", he wondered what he did with all that spare time. But he felt pleasantly fulfilled every time Tatsuki would remark that the red head seemed well cared for as of late, and about how clean the apartment was.

"We might be late," Orihime commented airily.

"You only thought of that now?" He responded plainly.

"Well I thought I could convince you to stay home today because of the rain," She said, sweatdropping. He arched one eyebrow at her, before speaking.

"Orihime... today is our graduation ceremony..." He pointed out. She stared at him, blank. A few minutes passed before her eyebrows heightened and she looked hesitant.

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

----

"You're late," whispered Rukia as Orihime took a seat beside her in the auditorium. She nodded, before laughing nervously in a quiet voice.

"Sorry Kuchiki-san... were you worried?" She asked, smiling.

"Nah, we weren't worried," interrupted Ichigo, arms crossed and looking away like a tempermental child before Rukia whacked him roughly. He did this once in a while, acting up whenever he thought Ishida and her were being too intimate in public. He really did seem like a child sometimes, upset that his favourite toy was taken away. And what was worse was that Ishida used this to his advantage whenever they were fighting for some sort of dominance.

"Don't be ridiculous Ichigo... they wouldn't be doing such things so early in the morning!" Rukia commented impatiently.

"Huh? Why not in the morning?" Orihime asked, confusion clearly written on her innocent face. Rukia and Ichigo looked at her as though she had just proclaimed she was Aizen in disguise before proceeding to eat a monkey while hanging upside down from a tree branch. Which, was safe to say, was a very shocked expression. "Is there some sort of curse? Oh no! What's going to happen to us?"

"Hush Orihime, you're going to get in trouble," Tatsuki said, turning to face her friend. She nodded, leaving Rukia and Ichigo with completely dead looks on their faces. She took note of the warning and stopped any conversation, oblivious to the distress of the small shinigami and her substitute.

---

Ishida and Orihime stood in front of the door to their shared apartment, Ishida letting her search through her pockets for a moment before finding his own with efficiency and speed and handing them to her. He very well knew she'd left her keys on the counter again this morning, and hoped she wouldn't make this a bad habit in the future. She was going to get herself locked out. He made a mental note to make a copy of the key for Tatsuki in such a case.

"Welcome home," Orihime said, planting a soft kiss on Ishida's cheek as she turned the key. It seemed difficult, but it had become a daily ritual that she insisted on doing. Something about making it 'homey'. That and something about a monkey extermination spell Tatsuki had told her to quell her fears about her laundrey being comandeered by said baboons in a rage that Ishida was keeping them clean and organized. He was still unsure where these things came from.

"I'm home," He answered solemnly. She squealed at his seriousness, before turning the door knob and opening it.

The pair stopped, frozen and staring in disbelief at their peaceful apartment. It was filled with Soul Society friends and the gang, all roaming about and setting up some sort of cake. Ichigo passed the door, and then looked at them.

"Well don't just stop and stare, come in!" He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't need you to say that, it's our apartment, Kurosaki," Ishida said, the fighting beginning between the two. Orihime shook her head, and entered the apartment.

Inoue noticed with no small amusement that Zaraki-taichou, Yumichika and Ikkaku had not failed in showing up though it clearly wasn't their scene. The red head searched about with her eyes for the small pink haired fukutaichou only to be nearly knocked over by a pink blur.

"Y-yachiru-chan..." She said, struggling under the giggling creature. "How are you?"

"Everyone misses you from our squad, you should visit!"

"A-ah... why is everyone here, by the way?"

"That's easy! There's something called a... a... g-gradation?" Yachiru answered. "Well anyway, we're all here to celebrate!"

"Well, Ishida-kun and I are very happy to see you all again looking so healthy!" She responded happily once Yachiru had gotten off her.

"Hn? The boy with glasses?" Zaraki commented, looking surprised. Orihime nodded. "You mean... you're living with him?" The red head felt that this was going in a very strange direction but was unable to stop it.

"Yes, well... living with someone else is much more fun than living alone, right?" She rationalized. Zaraki watched warily before speaking again.

"I see.Be careful, Orihime-chan," He responded uncharacteristically. Yachiru appeared sitting on one broad shoulder, grinning.

"Ken-chan is trying to say he wants to be the godfather!" Yachiru interrupted cheerfully. Orihime stared, feeling like a fish out of water.

"Uh... what?" She responded, half in shock. "I'm not having a baby..."

"You aren't?" Zaraki asked. Orihime finally figured out why he had been saying such odd things to her earlier. Who had told him that...? "Yachiru... what have I told you about lying...?"

"But Ken-chan! You could still be a godfather when Orihime-chan does have a baby! She's already said yes!" Yachiru argued.

"Huh... when did... wha?" Orihime stuttered, trying to make a coherent thought.

"Oi! Why didn't you ask me? You certainly chase me around often enough," Ichigo piped up, suddenly listening in on the conversation. He was jealous, as usual.

"Ah, Ichigo! There you are, I've been looking for you-" Zaraki never finished.

"Why didn't you ask to be godfather of my kids, huh? Is there something better about some Quincy's offspring that I don't know about?" Ichigo continued the tirade, obviously still in argument mode from Ishida, who had now entered the conversation. Zaraki looked at Ichigo before slowly nodding.

"Orihime-chan's baby will probably be cuter than your's. You're strong, Ichigo, but you really don't know how taichou's mind works," Yumichika said, flipping his hair. "Taichou was probably thinking about having Orihime's baby around so it has a lot of practice healing once it inherits Hime-chan's powers."

"In other words you're looking for a personal nurse?" Ichigo said with a sweat drop.

"Well if you think about it-"

"Ahem It could be a Quincy too, you know," Ishida inserted pointedly.

Chad fainted nearby, imagining Ishida as a large chested girl as if that were exactly how the child might look (much like how he remembered Ichigo's sister) and finding another horrible image to try and forget.

"Oh my..." Orihime commented from the side lines.

---

"So let me get this straight. His entire squad had decided to be the godfathers?" Ishida asked later that evening as he sat up in bed, not reading the book in hand.

"I suppose so. But I hadn't thought about kids, I was so distracted by school and just living with you," Orihime commented, lounging comfortably with her head on his shoulder. "Do you want one though? I guess no one even asked you that. I mean, I understand if things with your father have made it a little hard for you to think about it."

"Someday, Orihime... when I've got a steady job and I can support a family. I'm not so stupid as to rush into things without planning for something so important like Kurosaki might," He said, the shine of his glasses hiding his eyes. "But there has to be one Quincy, or else I'll never hear the end of it from Kurosaki."

"Oh... well... I thought it might be nice to have two Quincy... you know, so that one won't feel so lonely," Orihime said, looking over at him. He was smiling. That was his Orihime, always thinking of strange things and then catching him offguard with something very sentimental. He put the book away, and wrapped one arm around her to move her displaced head against his shoulder once more.

"You're thinking too far ahead, Orihime-chan," he chastised half-heartedly, lifting her chin with one finger. He placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, thanking whatever deity existed for the thousandth time that he had been given this healing creature. With her, he could find the heart to forgive his father, because for a moment he could almost understand him for the first time in his life. Orihime blushed at the affectionate gesture, once more inwardly touched by his gentle nature and the way he could show his affection independently as well as combined with lust. She could ask for nothing more. Well... except for maybe whatever would keep that morning curse Kuchiki-san was talking about from taking effect and-

"Right now, it's just us. That's enough."

And Orihime knew he was right.

(A/N)

Ummm... yeah, I know. The last chapter was supposed to be the end, but I just couldn't say no when RedBloodedTalisman asked so nicely. Man, I'm a push over. But yeah, I hope this was what you were looking for to feel that fluffy closure and a sort of look into their new life together. My excuse is that this is an epilogue and that everyone who has an alert on this story will be (hopefully) pleasantly surprised when they receive notification by e-mail. Now, I might as well respond to the reviewers here.

TIFFB: Thank you so much! As the first reviewer to get rid of my fears that this would all be a wasted effort and assure me, I'll let you in on the secret that I almost cried because I was so happy that someone had said those words to me: "This was absolutely worth your time".

Negative Gemini: Thanks! I hope that you'll check out Obscureanimewriter's (or something like that) stuff on the c2 community "The thread that binds" if you like my stuff.

anon: Sorry about that, but I wanted to do some experimenting with style and keep the reader on their feet during that part. I think if I had spaced it out a little more it would have been easier without losing the technique I wanted to try. In this chapter I used the breaks that I played with in my random funny Chad/Orihime fanfic PETS. Just for you! ;)

amystery: Thank you! It means so much to me that I'm getting a wonderful review from an IchiOri fan! I'm tempted to write an IchiOri drabble just to thank you for that. :)

RedBloodTalisman: Well, here it is! Though, I'm very sorry if this came out a little more rated M than I meant to but it was how I began the fanfic so... I tried to make it fluffy for you though and keep the scenes non-graphic for the younger readers sneaking a peak at this. Though I'm a little worried I'm going to have to move my stuff over to adult pretty soon. You know how strict is about the young reader's policy.